“Don’t be such a twit” or “she is such a twit”. That’s how I grew up using the word. A few years ago, though, when wading through the ‘newness’ of Twitter, a whole deluge of words popped up to describe the 140 characters or less you can use to sum up your life.

…or should it be ’140 or fewer characters’? Countable? Non-countable? I should Google that…

Anyway, should ‘tweet’ be both a noun and a verb? Ah, other than the Lynne Trusses of the world, who cares? In today’s world, attention to grammar seems to have gone the way of the Comm0dore 64.

When Michael Jackson died, I had to turn off my phone – my twitter updates were just vibrating it all to hell. When people asked me why I was screening my calls, I had to tell them about my twitter addiction. For some reason I felt like I would wither away to nothing if I had to wait a few hours to check online. Ah, those were the days…

…these days I get to carry my Mac around with me…and log into TweetDeck. I make sure it’s on mute, then feel like I’m connected. Why do I need this? Does it really matter that someone I know – on the other side of the world – slept in and missed work? Or that there’s a new sale going on at a store in another country? Perhaps not, but it makes me feel connected. And you know what? That’s not an easy feeling to come by when you’re living in the Arctic. Not easy at all.

So here’s my current TweetDeck screen:

I have my personal one, the one I keep for my dogs (because, obviously, my dogs are technologically inclined), and the one I keep for a side business I’m trying to grow. And I tweet. And it makes me feel connected.

Since that time – the time when not many knew too much about the whole Twitter phenomenon – it’s grown to something that constantly shapes communication. I keep up to date with classes, friends, and (brace yourself) even Perez Hilton – gossip king/queen extraordinaire. There, my dirty little secret’s out.

But if you’re not concerned about who wore what to a red carpet event, keep this in mind: Twitter can be one of the most powerful tools out there. Face it, this is a tangential generation (hey, just check out the # of ellipses, dashes, parentheses, and general lack of direction throughout most of this post). Very short attention spans seem to be the result of the dizzying instant gratification we can receive online. Surfing is all about tangents!

…and there I go again…

Check out this story, then tell me Twitter’s not a powerful tool.

#change11